Beloved actor Catherine O’Hara lived with an unusual condition prior to her death on January 30.
O’Hara, who had become a firm fan favorite through roles in classics including Home Alone, Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Schitt’s Creek, among other productions, reportedly died at her home in Los Angeles last week aged 71.
The actor had previously opened up about being diagnosed with an unusual medical condition as an adult, one said to only affect around 1 in 10,000 people.
Dextrocardia is a described by the Cleveland Clinic as a rare congenital heart defect in which one’s heart is on the right side of their chest rather than the left. The unusual nature of the condition means that people who suffer from it often find out by accident or not at all.
Reportedly, there are several different kids of dextrocardia, including one where the heart is positioned slightly closer to the center of the chest, potentially resulting in an individual being more at risk of cardiac conditions.
Another type is dextrocardia situs inversus totalis, where a person’s internal organs are mirrored inside the body, but otherwise function normally.
Speaking in 2021, O’Hara revealed that she wasn’t aware she had the condition until she underwent a series of tests including an EKG and a chest X-ray for tuberculosis, as part of a test for her son to attend nursing school.
“When the doctor told us that my heart was on the right side and my organs were flipped, my husband immediately said, ‘No, her head’s on backwards,’” O’Hara joked at the time.
Dextrocardia doesn’t have any specific symptoms, though there are some potential complications that mean it’s better that an individual knows they have it.
This makes sense when it’s considered how having organs on the ‘wrong’ side of one’s body might makes it harder for medical professionals to diagnose or find the root cause of something. Doctors, for example, are trained to look for pains or sensations in certain parts of the body – subsequently, a red flag for a heart attack would be pain on the left side of the chest.
But with dextrocardia, this would be reversed on the right side, meaning a doctor might not consider a heart attack since the problem would be on the wrong side of the body.
Though the condition is, as stated, extremely rare, O’Hara reportedly wasn’t the only celebrity to have it. Donny Osmond, 68, and Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias, 50, are also both said to live with dextrocardia, while it’s thought to be more common in men.
At the time of writing, Catherine O’Hara’s cause of death remains unknown.
Rest in peace, Catherine, and thanks for the many memoriess.
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